Human recombinant adenoviruses (Ad) have been employed to develop experimental vaccines against a number of infectious agents. Ad-vectored vaccines express recombinant proteins, including any post-translational modifications, into functioning replicas of the native proteins capable of eliciting neutralizing antibodies in both abortive and permissive animal models. Human Ad types 4, 5, and 7 were used to construct recombinant viruses that express the respiratory syncytial virus F or G glycoproteins, the hepatitis B surface antigen, and the HIV env or gag genes. The recombinant Ad-HIV viruses are of particular interest and have been examined for their immunogenicity in dogs and chimpanzees. Dogs were immunized intratracheally with Ad-env recombinants (10(9) pfu/dog). Excellent humoral anti-HIV responses, including neutralizing antibodies, were detected in the sera following booster immunization (12-18 weeks after primary immunization) with a second Ad-env recombinant made in a different Ad serotype (heterotypic booster). Chimpanzees were immunized in two ways, orally with lyophilized virus (10(9) to 10(10) pfu/virus) in enteric-coated capsules or intranasally (10(7) pfu/virus). Intranasal immunization was superior to oral immunization with respect to replication of recombinant viruses as well as induction of anti-Ad and anti-HIV antibodies. Administration by both routes resulted in stimulation of cellular immune responses, as measured by antigen proliferation assays. Anti-HIV antibodies were detected in chimpanzee secretions (salivary, nasal, rectal, vaginal) taken from animals following intranasal immunization with a heterotypic recombinant. Intranasal administration effectively primed chimpanzees to produce high-titred (320-640) serum neutralizing antibodies to HIV following boosting with a baculovirus-derived env (gp160) subunit vaccine.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)