Consequently, combining antimicrobial therapy with TLR2- and endosomal TLR–specific antagonists effectively protected mice from pneumococcal meningitis pathology and significantly inhibited S. pneumoniae–induced activation of murine macrophages and human PBMCs in which TLR8 substitutes for TLR13. The gene discussed is TLR8; the disease is pneumococcal meningitis.