Previously, we demonstrated that cultures of human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) stimulated with herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) generate antigen-specific, major histocompatibility complex (MHC) restricted cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) that tend to be CD4+ and restricted to HLA-DR antigens. In this study, we present evidence that when HSV-1 stimulated human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) are cocultured with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), the generation of CD4+, DR-restricted CTL during the 5-day culture period is inhibited. In contrast, HIV-1 had no effect on either natural killer (NK) activity, or on the unrestricted NK-like killers which are often detected in HSV-1-stimulated cultures after the depletion of CD16+ cells. HIV-1 also failed to inhibit the generation of CTL against Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a response that principally involves CD8+, CD4-, class I-restricted killers.