HIV infection causes dysregulation of cytokine gene expression in CD4+ T cells of the infected host. Azidothymidine (AZT) inhibits HIV replication by blocking reverse transcription. Using a one-stop cell-to-cell HIV infection model, we have investigated the expression of several key cytokines in HIV infected T cells in the absence or presence of AZT treatment. Acute HIV infection of T cells resulted in dramatic down regulation of the expression of IL-2 and INF-gamma mRNA. While beta-actin mRNA levels remained constant in both AZT-free and AZT treated cultures after HIV infection, it was found that AZT blocked the down regulation of IL-2 mRNA and INF-gamma mRNA in CD4+ T cells acutely infected with HIV.