NLRP3 has been shown to be an important factor in the pathology of meningitis (Hoegen et al., 2011) In pneumococcal-induced meningitis, the production of interferon (IFN)-γ was dependent on the protein ASC, which is an adaptor protein for multiple inflammasomes (Mitchell et al., 2012). The gene discussed is NLRP3; the disease is meningitis.