FIGURE 7.

Relevance of antibody effector functions throughout the SARS‐CoV‐2 viral life cycle. The cartoon depicts the interactions of the virus with the host cell, and the moments when the spike antigen may be visible to circulating antibodies. As the virus roles across the cell surface and may be targetable by many effector mechanisms including those driven by phagocytic cells and natural killer (NK) cells (left). However, once binding to ACE2 has occurred, the virus is rapidly endocytosed, leaving limited to no spike on the surface of cells. Moreover, new viruses assemble and release from the Golgi, leaving little to no spike on the surface at the time of egress (right). Thus, functional spike‐specific antibodies likely confer the bulk of their protective functions via the recognition and elimination of free particles prior to infection or soon after egress, providing a critical bottleneck for the virus