TNF and infection: The high frequency of the wild-type allele (G) in the group of patients with chronic HCV infection could be a suggestion that in addition to having a higher risk of developing the infection, these patients could have a greater chance of developing the chronic form of the disease, this due to the inadequate production of TNF-α by dendritic cells favors the differentiation of CD4+ T cells into IL-10- and non-IFN-γ-producing cells [23].