This invention provides methods and pharmaceutical compositions that can treat neuroinflammatory disease by reducing the production of pyrophosphate intermediates produced during the biosynthesis of isoprenoids. The pyrophosphate compounds being inhibited are normally produced through the mevalonate and non-mevalonate pathways of the host vertebrate organisms and their symbiotic and pathogenic microorganisms. The methods involve administering to a patient an inhibitor of the mevalonate-dependent pathway, an inhibitor of the non-mevalonate pathway, or combination of such inhibitors.