Cellular automata simulation of medication-induced autoimmune diseases

We implement the cellular automata model proposed by Stauffer and Weisbuch in 1992 to describe the response of the immune system to antigens in the presence of medications. The model contains two thresholds, θ1 and θ2, suggested by de Boer, Segel, and Perelson to present the minimum field needed to stimulate the proliferation of the receptors and to suppress it, respectively. The influence of the drug is mimicked by increasing the second threshold, thus enhancing the immune response. If this increase is too strong, the immune response is triggered in the whole immune repertoire, causing it to attack the own body. This effect is seen in our simulations to depend both on the ratio of the thresholds and on their absolute values.