Human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK293)-derived 293A cells were maintained in Dulbecco’s Modified Eagle’s Medium (Nacalai Tesque, Kyoto, Japan) supplemented with 10% foetal bovine serum (Biowest, Nuaillé, France), and 1% penicillin-streptomycin (Nacalai Tesque), 2 mM L-glutamine (Nacalai Tesque), and 1 × Non-Essential Amino Acid (Life Technologies, Tokyo, Japan) at 37°C in a humidified atmosphere of 5% (v/v) CO2 in air. Twenty-four hours after the cells had been seeded (0.92 × 105 cells/cm2), each vector plasmid was transfected into 293A cells using polyethyleneimine ‘MAX’ (PEI-MAX) (Polysciences, Warrington, PA, USA) as described previously [23 (link)].