The problem of treating viral infections is extremely relevant due to both the emergence of new viral diseases and to the low effectiveness of existing approaches to the treatment of known viral infections. This review focuses on the application of porphyrin, chlorin, and phthalocyanine series for combating viral infections by chemical and photochemical inactivation methods. The purpose of this review paper is to summarize the main approaches developed to date in the chemical and photodynamic inactivation of human and animal viruses using porphyrins and their analogues and to analyze and discuss the information on viral targets and antiviral activity of porphyrins, chlorins, of their conjugates with organic/inorganic compounds obtained in the last 10–15 years in order to identify the most promising areas.

The pandemic infectious disease (Covid-19) caused by the coronavirus (SARS-CoV2) is spreading rapidly around the world. Covid-19 does an irreparable harm to the health and life of people. It also has a negative financial impact on the economies of most countries of the world. In this regard, the issue of creating drugs aimed at combating this disease is especially acute. In this work, molecular docking was used to study the docking of 23 compounds with QRF3a SARS-CoV2. The performed in silico modeling made it possible to identify leading compounds capable of exerting a potential inhibitory and virucidal effect. The leading compounds include chlorin (a drug used in PDT), iron(III)protoporphyrin (endogenous porphyrin), and tetraanthraquinone porphyrazine (an exogenous substance). Having taken into consideration the localization of ligands in the QRF3a SARS-CoV2, we have made an assumption about their influence on the pathogenesis of Covid-19. The interaction of chlorin, iron(III)protoporphyrin and protoporphyrin with the viral protein ORF3a were studied by fluorescence and UV–Vis spectroscopy. The obtained experimental results confirm the data of molecular docking. The results showed that a viral protein binds to endogenous porphyrins and chlorins, moreover, chlorin is a competitive ligand for endogenous porphyrins. Chlorin should be considered as a promising drug for repurposing.