| Rank |
Pathway / Target Axis |
Direction |
Primary Effect |
Notes / Cancer Relevance |
Ref |
| 1 |
K+ ionophore activity / ionic homeostasis |
↑ K+ transport (ionophore) / ↓ intracellular K+ homeostasis |
Electrochemical disruption |
Salinomycin is directly described as a potassium ionophore in mechanistic studies of its anticancer effects |
(ref) |
| 2 |
Cancer stem cell (CSC) fraction / stemness programs |
↓ CSC proportion / tumor-initiating capacity |
Selective CSC depletion |
Landmark study showing salinomycin strongly reduces CSC proportion (e.g., >100-fold vs paclitaxel in their assay context) and inhibits tumor growth in vivo |
(ref) |
| 3 |
Wnt/β-catenin signaling |
↓ |
Loss of self-renewal signaling |
Primary mechanistic paper identifying salinomycin as an inhibitor of the Wnt signaling cascade |
(ref) |
| 4 |
Wnt co-receptor LRP6 (Wnt pathway control point) |
↓ LRP6 / ↓ Wnt signaling |
Wnt pathway suppression |
Shows salinomycin suppresses LRP6 expression at concentrations relevant to growth inhibition, linking activity to Wnt/β-catenin suppression |
(ref) |
| 5 |
Autophagic flux + lysosomal proteolysis |
↓ autophagic flux (blocked) / ↓ lysosomal proteolytic activity |
Abortive autophagy / stress accumulation |
Demonstrates salinomycin blocks autophagic flux and lysosomal proteolytic activity in breast cancer CSC and non-CSC populations |
(ref) |
| 6 |
ER stress / UPR (ATF4 → CHOP/DDIT3) |
↑ ER stress / ↑ CHOP axis |
Proteotoxic stress signaling |
Shows salinomycin stimulates ER stress and mediates autophagy through the ATF4–CHOP–TRIB3 axis |
(ref) |
| 7 |
AKT–mTOR survival signaling (via TRIB3) |
↓ AKT / ↓ mTOR signaling |
Reduced survival + altered autophagy control |
Same mechanistic work links ER stress activation to TRIB3-mediated inhibition of AKT1–mTOR signaling after salinomycin exposure |
(ref) |
| 8 |
ROS generation and ROS-linked lysosomal dysfunction |
↑ ROS |
Oxidative stress amplification |
Demonstrates salinomycin-induced ROS and connects ROS to lysosomal membrane permeability and impaired autophagy flux |
(ref) |
| 9 |
Mitochondrial apoptosis (caspase cascade) |
↑ Caspase-9/3 activation |
Programmed cell death |
Shows salinomycin triggers caspase-dependent apoptosis involving caspases (including 9 and 3) in a salinomycin toxicity/mechanism study (demonstrates directionality for caspase activation) |
(ref) |
| 10 |
EMT phenotype |
↑ E-cadherin / ↓ vimentin (EMT suppressed) |
Reduced migration/invasion |
Reports salinomycin increases epithelial markers and decreases mesenchymal markers in a dose-dependent manner, with reduced migration/invasion |
(ref) |
| 11 |
ABC transporter–mediated multidrug resistance |
↓ functional MDR phenotype |
Overcomes drug resistance |
Directly reports salinomycin overcomes ABC transporter–mediated multidrug/apoptosis resistance in leukemia stem cell–like cells |
(ref) |
| 12 |
Ferroptosis susceptibility (GPX4 axis) in CSC context |
↑ ferroptosis (context-dependent) |
Non-apoptotic oxidative death modality |
Reports salinomycin induces ferroptosis in a CSC context via a pathway converging on GPX4/GPX activity regulation (directionality: ferroptosis induction by salinomycin in that model) |
(ref) |