The research goal is to elucidate molecular interactions between various drug molecules and cell membranes in situ. A nonlinear optical spectroscopic method

sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy

was applied to investigate molecular interactions between antimicrobial compounds

chlorpromazine

amantadine

memantine and neutral or negatively charged model cell membranes. The different interactions between different drug molecules and different model cell membranes were successfully elucidated. For example

the molecular mechanisms of how antimicrobial compounds disrupt model cell membranes were revealed. The similarity and differences when chlorpromazine

amantadine

and memantine interact with model cell membranes with different charges were reported. SFG was developed into a powerful technique to study interactions between drug molecules and cell membranes

which can be applied to study interactions between Chinese medicine and cell membranes in the future.