The synthesis and preliminary evaluation of new quinoline and quinoxaline derivatives (obtained by applying the original Reissert method, conveniently modified) as HIV-1 Reverse Transcriptase (RT) inhibitors are presented in this paper; likewise, the first structure-activity relationships are also proposed. Propyl 2-cyano-1(2H)-quinolin-carboxylate 2e, isopropyl 2-cyano-1 (2H)-quinolincarboxylate 2f, butyl 2-cyano-1 (2H)-quinolincarboxylate 2g and isobutyl 2-cyano-1 (2H)-quinolincarboxylate 2h have been selected as lead compounds. These compounds are active against the HIV-1 RT mutant type P236L (2f, IC50 = 1.2 microM) and present activity as anti-infective agents in HLT41acZ-1IIIB cells, showing no cytotoxicity at the active concentrations.